A sandwich press has a lower housing that supports a lower cooking surface. The upper cooking surface is carried by an upper housing that pivots about a “U” shaped frame. The “U” shaped frame further comprises a transverse handle that allows the user to raise and lower the upper housing. In a typical sandwich press, the upper and lower cooking surfaces are flat.
Similar configurations are used in electric grills. The operating temperature of an electric grill is higher than that of a typical sandwich press. In these types of grills, both the top the upper and lower cooking surfaces include parallel ribs which provide cooked meat with characteristic sear marks and also promote the run off of cooking juices. However, neither prior art sandwich presses nor prior art meat grills are known to have sandwich press as well as grill functions, providing a fully open grill orientation in which both cooking surfaces are facing upward, generally co-planar and horizontal.